John McCain advises allies to stick the place you might be US right through ‘ occasions’

Arizona senior senator says reputation of US suffered during early months of Trump administration as scandals hit White House

Donald Trumps administration is mired in scandal, senior Republican senator John McCain has said, but he exhorted Americas allies to stand by the nation as it navigates troubled times.

In a speech in Sydney, Australia, McCain said the US remained the most important country on Earth, and the global defender of truth over falsehood.

McCain also used the speech to launch a swingeing attack on China, accusing the emerging superpower of bullying other countries, stealing intellectual property and inducing illegal territory asserts in the South China Sea.

My friends, I know that many of you will have a lot of questions about where America is headed under President Trump. Frankly, so do many Americans. What I would say is that the new administration is just that new. It is still determining its feet.

McCain conceded Americas reputation had suffered in the early months of Trumps presidency as scandals over ties to Russia, alleged obstruction of an FBI investigation, nepotism and foundering the relationship with other world leaders rocked the administration with crippling regularity.

We gone through a rough period, McCain said. We truly are, and for me to tell you that we arent, politically, is not fair. But weve gone through other distressed days. I can recollect the Watergate scandal and how it brought down a president. Im not suggesting thats going to happen to this president, but we are in a scandal and every few days another shoe falls from this centipede, and weve got to get through that.

McCain told observers of the US must look beyond the president. Our foreign friends always tend to focus on the person in the White House. But America is far bigger than that. America is our courts of justice. America is our country and local governments. America is our Congress.

I know that the pushing and shoving and checking and balancing of my countrys organizations may not be fairly, but this vast intricate and beautiful system called American republic is doing exactly what its supposed to do.

In Australia as a guest of the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney, McCain told while he respected Chinas economic and strategic rise, the country must conform to established global regulations. The challenge is that as China as grown wealthier and stronger, it seems to be acting more and more like a bully, he said.

It is refusing to open more of its economy so that foreign businesses can compete reasonably. Its stealing other peoples intellectual property. Its asserting vast territorial claims that have no basis in international law and its using its trade and investment as tools to coerce its neighbours. The idea that China is now the steward of the open rules-based global economic order it may sell at Davos but people in this country, in this region, know better.

McCain told Chinas claims to territory and exclusive maritime rights within the so-called nine-dash line in the South China Sea were illegal and is necessary defied. He said America, Australia, and other allies should work together in the region, including by exerting freedom of navigation in the area, to push back against Chinese island-building and militarisation in the sea.

McCain concluded his address with a plea to Australia and other US allies to stick with us. He said: We need your help, my friends. Now more than ever.

I realise that some of President Trumps actions and statements have unsettled Americas friends. They have unsettled many Americans as well. There is a real debate under way now in my country about what kind of role America should play in the world and, frankly … the future of the world will turn on a large extent on how this debate in America is resolved.